Metropolitan Life Insurance Building

Location: 1006 4th Ave NE
mid-Century modern

Metropolitan Life Insurance Building 1960s, Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation files

Metropolitan Life Insurance Building (Crain’s Office Supply) today (2014), photo by Deb Ross

This small Miesian style building was designed in 1958 by architect Kenneth Ripley and served as the Olympia office of Metropolitan Life until the 1970s. Its distinctive low profile and windows reaching up to the eaves were accentuated by beams that held up the flat roof. These have now been obscured by a metal parapet.

The building is on the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation inventory as part of DAHP’s modernism project.

Additional resources:

Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Inventory, property 102772

mid-Century Modern Tour Guide

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